‘Bizarre’ DA’s race ends with Auburn-based incumbent re-elected

AUBURN — Putting an end to the one of the state’s more bizarre campaigns, voters Tuesday re-elected District Attorney Andrew Robinson and rejected a Republican challenger whose law license is suspended after an allegation of domestic violence.

Seth Carey, who won a GOP primary in June despite being barred from the courtroom, lost by a wide margin to Robinson for the right to prosecute cases in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties for the next four years.

Final numbers were unavailable Tuesday night, but Robinson racked up lopsided victories in Lewiston, Auburn, Farmington, Bethel and other towns.

Carey won some municipalities, including Lisbon and Mechanic Falls.

For Robinson, the results brought relief.

“This whole experience for me has been so bizarre and beyond the pale,” he said, with the frustrating necessity of explaining repeatedly to people about Carey’s background.

Carey spent Election Day holding the door open for voters entering and exiting Longley Elementary School in Lewiston, a particularly busy spot.

By nightfall, the exhaustion of it was catching up to him, but he still hoped for victory.

When a reporter told him it looked as though he could not win, Carey quietly muttered, “Dammit.”

He said he felt shocked at the results.

“I really don’t know what to say,” Carey said.

Carey later offered congratulations to Robinson for running a clean campaign.

“He didn’t need to go negative because the accusations from the false accusers did that for him,” Carey said. “The people weren’t going to elect a suspended attorney.

“It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to run a normal campaign void of all the negative press premised on false accusations.”

He said he was “especially disappointed in the judiciary for not seeing through the ridiculous accusations of these troubled women.”

“Now all I can do is focus on finding justice,” Carey said, “but the judgments so far don’t leave me optimistic.”

Robinson greeted voters at Auburn Hall and elsewhere Tuesday while fretting about how to handle a late-breaking problem with robocalls flooding his constituents with harsh, unproven allegations of misconduct.

He said the entire campaign was in many respects “a horrible experience,” but he was glad voters came through.

“I am a person who believes in democracy,” he said.

Robinson secured a second term by promising to continue efforts to make his office more efficient and bring more resources to bear on issues related to domestic violence.

Carey’s license to practice law has been suspended since springtime, and he faces the possibility of getting tossed out of the profession soon for a history of legal incompetence and an alleged sexual assault.

He has two protection orders issued against him, including one in which a judge found Carey engaged in three unwanted sexual advances on a woman he invited to live in a spare room at his Rumford home.

Superior Court Justice Thomas Warren ruled in September that running for the district attorney’s job violated an order prohibiting him from working as a lawyer.

It was not clear how the legal system would have handled it had Carey won the race, given that prosecutors must be practicing lawyers.

The state Republican Party disowned him months ago.

In addition to his current legal woes, Carey was suspended for six months in 2009 and sanctioned again in 2016.

The district attorney, a four-year position, supervises 13 prosecutors and 22 support staff members across the three counties. Some of the prosecutors specialize in domestic violence and sex offense cases.

The district attorney is responsible for prosecuting all crimes in the region, except murder and some tax and fraud cases.

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